Construction of Pseudomolecules for the Chinese Chestnut (<i>Castanea mollissima</i>) Genome

Abstract

The Chinese chestnut (<i>Castanea mollissima</i> Bl.) is a woody nut crop with a high ecological value. Although many cultivars have been selected from natural seedlings, elite lines with comprehensive agronomic traits and characters remain rare. To explore genetic resources with aid of whole genome sequence will play important roles in modern breeding programs for chestnut. In this study, we generated a high-quality <i>C. mollissima</i> genome assembly by combining 90× Pacific Biosciences long read and 170× high-throughput chromosome conformation capture data. The assembly was 688.93 Mb in total, with a contig N50 of 2.83 Mb. Most of the assembled sequences (99.75%) were anchored onto 12 chromosomes, and 97.07% of the assemblies were accurately anchored and oriented. A total of 33,638 protein-coding genes were predicted in the <i>C. mollissima</i> genome. Comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses provided insights into the genes expressed in specific tissues, as well as those associated with burr development in the Chinese chestnut. This highly contiguous assembly of the <i>C. mollissima</i> genome provides a valuable resource for studies aiming at identifying and characterizing agronomical-important traits, and will aid the design of breeding strategies to develop more focused, faster, and predictable improvement programs.